Techniques for repairing damaged or diseased tissue are widespread in medicine. Wound closure devices, such as sutures and staples, as well as other repair devices like mesh and patch reinforcements, are frequently used for repair. For example, in the case of hernias, a surgical mesh or patch is commonly used to reinforce an abdominal wall. Typically, sutures, staples, and/or tacks are utilized to fix the surgical mesh or patch to surrounding tissue. Accordingly, various surgical procedures require instruments capable of applying fasteners to tissue to form tissue connections or to secure objects to tissue.
Minimally invasive, e.g., endoscopic or laparoscopic, surgical procedures are currently available to repair a hernia. In laparoscopic procedures, surgery is performed in the abdomen through a small incision while in endoscopic procedures, surgery is performed through endoscopic tubes or cannulas inserted through small incisions in the body. Laparoscopic and endoscopic procedures generally utilize long and narrow instruments capable of reaching remote regions within the body and configured to seal with the incision or tube they are inserted through. Additionally, the instruments must be capable of being actuated remotely, that is, from outside the body.
Currently, minimally invasive surgical techniques for hernia repair utilize surgical fasteners, e.g., surgical tacks, staples, and clips, to secure a mesh to tissue to provide reinforcement and structure for encouraging tissue ingrowth. Surgical fasteners are often applied through an elongate instrument for delivery to the mesh, and are manipulated from outside a body cavity.